Let's Tidy-Up Some Misunderstandings of Marie Kondo's New Show

We need to get organized on this episode Waypoints, which means it's time to get advice from Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and learn all about both the KonMari method, and issues people have taken with the organization expert and her new reality show. Does she really hate books and mementos, or is that just a misunderstanding of what Kondo is trying to get people to do? Then, Rob has been reading an eye-opening article about the forces that have been preying upon and devastating rural communities for the last 30 years. It's a useful corrective to a lot of simplified narratives of rural stagnation that have been used to excuse bad actors and official indifference.

Useful Resources

• Book lovers vs. Marie Kondo
• What Tidying Up reveals about women's invisible labor
• What clutter might signify to people with their own cultural experiences and history
• A letter from a retiring dairy farmer

Update: The science of methane emissions from cows based on their diet is more complicated than I made it sound. The relationship between cow diets and methane emissions is not just a matter of corn being good, and grass being bad. Grass-fed, pastured cows emit more methane overall that feedlot cows, though corn and soy diets do also have an effect on a cow's digestion and emissions. The bottom line that may be inescapable here is that we just raise and consume way too much cattle to be sustainable. Apologies for however I may have mangled the facts of that discussion.

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